Hubbell Takes Aim at Residential IoT Market with Acquisition of iDevices

Lighting and electrical equipment manufacturer Hubbell Inc., Shelton, CT, took a major stake in building out the potential of Internet of Things (IoT) systems with the deal announced this week to acquire iDevices, Avon, CT, a significant player in the connected home industry.

iDevices will join Hubbell’s large portfolio of brands that manufacture and sell electrical and electronic products for residential, commercial, industrial, and utility applications.

By joining the Hubbell family, iDevices secures the backing and capabilities of a well-established manufacturer, while Hubbell strengthens its innovation engine with iDevices’ knowledge and expertise in the residential IoT marketplace, said the release.

Christopher Allen, CEO and founder of iDevices, built his company around one of the first app-enabled inventions, the iGrill, a Bluetooth-enabled cooking thermometer. The iGrill laid the foundation for iDevices’ push into the connected home space. Today, iDevices employs more than 65 people including a team of in-house engineers and software developers focused on homes’ power, lighting and climate control systems. iDevices’ smart home products can be controlled via smart phone devices and through voice control with products like Amazon’s Echo.

“Hubbell was born at the dawn of electricity, iDevices at the dawn of IoT,” said Allen in an iDevices release. “We are at the precipice of a revolution in technology that will forever change people’s lives and the way they interact with the world around them. Today, we proudly join the Hubbell family and in so doing, solidify iDevices’ and Hubbell’s place in this revolution.”

Hubbell’s CEO David Nord, in the company’s discussion of its first quarter earnings, pointed to iDevices’ established expertise in development of firmware and apps for IoT cloud applications.

“iDevices accelerates our capabilities and expertise in IoT technology, propelling us more quickly toward our vision of providing Tier 3 energy management solutions via connected hardware with a software front-end.”

The earnings release also highlighted the company’s recent acquisition in the natural gas metering market of Advance Engineering

Corp. (AEC), which Nord described as “a gas components manufacturer that complements our existing offering in the natural gas distribution vertical. AEC joins our recent acquisitions of GasBreaker and Lyall to bolster our leadership position in main-to-meter mechanical solutions in this area.”

Among Hubbell’s other efforts in the IoT space, the company renamed and refocused its building automation platform business as Hubbell Control Solutions to reflect the growing importance of controls in lighting solutions.